Jessica hadn’t seen Emma that angry in… well, she wasn’t entirely sure it had ever happened, actually. Not where she could see it, at least.

Which made it hurt all the more, even though she’d been told to expect a response like that.

Nobody else came out for a bit, and she was debating whether to listen to what she’d been told otherwise but ask Jade what exactly she was supposed to be doing, and just ignoring those two’s entire plan and tearing off after Emma when the next person finally came out.

And froze, staring at her.

“You’re… Jessica, right?”

That was Selicae’s new… former, now, probably… north laner. He was a bit lanky, tall enough that she didn’t really want to guess at how tall he was without a good reference point.

He was who she’d been waiting for, and a much better option than almost anyone who would have come out of that room, but that didn’t stop annoyance from creeping into her voice. “Yeah, what about it?”

“Sorry, it’s just… did you see Emma come out of here? I wanted to apologize to her.” He said, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck.

Her eyebrows shot up. She’d gotten descriptions about him being angry with people, but nothing that would have led to this. Probably a feature of how Emma described some things, extra focus on things that stood out to her.

Jessica had been dealing with that for years, and it still managed to catch her off guard.

Though that might have been a feature of falling out of practice more than not being able to.

Annoying. But not his fault.

“I did, but it’s probably better to just let her off on her own for a bit,” Jessica said. She didn’t actually agree with that, but… well, it was an excuse to begin with. Not really her problem if Nathaniel or Jade ended up dealing with a fallout.

“Ah. Fuck. Yeah. I’m… ugh, this is kinda just a shitshow, isn’t it?”

Jessica had to laugh at that. “Yeah, it is. I didn’t even hear half of what went on in that room and just what I heard’d be enough to break up most teams.” She paused for a moment, as if considering, but she’d had the next phrase loaded since she heard the argument inside. “How are you holding up with all this? I know that team’s not always the best to work with.”

Quince scoffed. “While we’re on the topic of understatement, your friend’s an alright player and Doug is sometimes a bit controlling.” He shook his head. “But I’m mostly alright. This was gonna be a temporary placing to begin with; this just made it a little bit more so. I am a little bit disappointed about Emma getting caught in the middle of it, though.”

“You and me both,” Jessica said, “Not that it didn’t need to happen at some point anyways.”

“Fucked my timeline up though,” Quince said, a half-smile softening the cursing, “Unless you’re here to offer me a post on whatever team it is you found, at least. Still, I traded it for getting her out of that bullshit and I’d do it again,”

“You. You I like.”

She was mostly filling up space, though, because she was going a mile a minute in her head. Had they known that he was making this team temporary? Had they guessed? Was she supposed to offer a spot?

Maybe? She had no idea, and she didn’t particularly want to bring up the team at all until she knew that Emma was okay, given that her own staying on the team was dependent on that.

Still, she did need to keep him here, and–

He’d said something, and she’d completely missed it. Not the nice kind of missed it where she still remembered what was said and just wasn’t processing it at the time, but actually completely zoned out of the conversation while still going through all the motions.

“I’m sorry, I missed that.”

“Oh. Okay, it didn’t really matter much anyways. I did want to go check on Emma, though…”

Shit, shit, shit.

“Mmm. Give her a couple more minutes, but I think I have someone you’ll want to talk to.”

Quince must have asked who, but she’d already waved to Jade. It had looked like she was paying attention to the screens across the hallway, but there wasn’t even a second of hesitation before she nodded and started walking over.

That had seemed like a meaningless quirk before yesterday, but now it was making her a little uncomfortable. How often were she and her brother doing that? Was it not enough to seem disinterested, so they went for not paying any attention at all, instead?

And how often did them seeming disinterested in something actually mean anything, anyways?

Jade was quickly over to them, at least, pulling her thoughts back out of the rut just in case she tried anything funny.

“Jade,” the girl said, sticking out her hand for a handshake.

“Quince.” He responded, taking it quickly before suddenly blinking and narrowing his eyes at her hand. “Jessica said I might want to speak to you?”

Jade smiled, seemingly guilelessly, and Jessica had to remind herself of who exactly was doing the dealing to prevent herself from relaxing. “Of course. I know you were on that team to get seen, given how you were playing, so tell me: Do you use the same strategies for mid that you do for north?”

She asked the question in such a way that it seemed impressed with his performance, wanting to learn more.

Jessica also knew, from being close to her as she made observations about the game to her brother, that she found his north lane play one step short of completely boring. It wasn’t a question where she wanted the implied answer; it was a test of honesty and game sense disguised as a compliment.

Jessica had to bite back her disgust for it.

Quince, though, didn’t see that, and cringed slightly. “No, I can’t say that I do. I really hate northlane, if I’m being honest. I can play it, but…”

Jade looked moderately disappointed. “Don’t worry about that. What are your preferred roles?”

“Mid, then carry and diver about evenly, ranger, then north and support at the very bottom.”

Jade nodded, the smile coming back in a more honest form. “That’s perfect, actually. Now, I’m going to need to hear more, but we do like what we’ve seen so far. How do you feel about some trial games?”